Going to Miami

A personal guide to this American town discussing its beginnings and looking at the different nationalities who live there today, their contributions and how they have shaped the town in modern times.

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Miami has been fashioned by many different groups of people and the author traces this aspect, from the time when real-estate hucksters invented it and architects made it into a theme park of Moorish Spain, to its present day inhabitants. In particular, David Rieff looks at the different nationalities which make up Miami's present population, their contributions to the town and how they have exploited it. The Cubans especially, recognized that drugs were a growth industry in America and encouraged this industry as well as making a success of other financial enterprises they became involved with. Miami is also the headquarters of the Nicaraguan Contras as well as being the home of Hondurans, Haitians, Vietnamese boat people, black Americans and wealthy Jewish retirees together with the steady influx of tourists. The work is intended both as preparation for anyone visiting Miami or for the armchair traveller.